William Cheselden’s Osteographia (1733)

With its novel vignettes and its use of a camera obscura in the production of the plates, William Cheselden’s lavishly illustrated Osteographia or the Anatomy of the Bones, is recognized as a landmark in the history of anatomical illustration.

Read more about the Osteographia in Monique Kornell’s article for The Public Domain Review.

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Animals & Beasts

In this section of the site we bring you curated collections of images, books, audio and film, shining a light on curiosities and wonders from a wide range of online archives. With a leaning toward the surprising, the strange, and the beautiful, we hope to provide an ever-growing cabinet of curiosities for the digital age, a kind of hyperlinked Wunderkammer – an archive of materials which truly celebrates the breadth and variety of our shared cultural commons and the minds that have made it. Some of our most popular posts include visions of the future from late 19th century France, a dictionary of Victorian slang and a film showing the very talented “hand-farting” farmer of Michigan. With each post including links back to the original source we encourage you to explore these wonderful online sources for yourself. Check out our Sources page to see where we find the content.

BROWSE BY MEDIUM

BROWSE BY MEDIUM

Written and published by Thomas Greenhill, an 18th-century surgeon, Nekpokēdeia is a collection of all things related to death and burial, focusing in particular on the history and art of embalming. …Continued

The majority of the digital copies featured are in the public domain or under an open license all over the world, however, some works may not be so in all jurisdictions. On each Collections post we've done our best to indicate which rights we think apply, so please do check and look into more detail where necessary, before reusing.